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Do you care where your speakers are manufactured?

Would you like your speakers to be manufactured in your local area (Europe, US) as opposed to Asia?

  • My priority is that the price is as low as possible, no matter where it is manufactured

  • I'd prefer local manufacturing, but only if the price premium is very low

  • I will purchase locally manufactured items even though I understand that it costs more


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OTOH, if you are McIntosh Laboratory, "Made in Binghamton, New York, USA" is an important part of the appeal, and while it's ownership has changed more than once, overseas owners have never dared to offshore the bulk of the manufacturing.

Their products contain a fuktonne of imported components. They make their own transformers, but bring in vacuum tubes from one or more of the few countries where they are still manufactured. They do use quite a bit more domestically made stuff to build their products than the usual "Assembled in USA" operation does, but there is still plenty of "foreign" content there because that's literally unavoidable -- e.g. try to find an American-made discrete semiconductor or coupling capacitor.
 
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Would you like your speakers to be manufactured in your local area?
I did not vote because to me it is not at all clear what the question and the answers mean.
I guess there is a legal definition whether a product is i.e. "Made in Netherlands" or "Made in China". But what exactly dominates that decision, I do not know. [And then there is "Designed in USA and assembled in China" ;)]

What is the "manufacture"? Which of the following is part of it?
  1. Extracting and cultivating raw materials like copper and wood
  2. Building drivers or parts
  3. Carpenting the cabinets
  4. Building the crossover (passive or the active module)
  5. Screwing the parts together
  6. Research and development
  7. Marketing and brand building
  8. Distribution and sales channel
  9. After sales service
  10. Legal domicile of the company
  11. ...
Each of these points could happen in a different country. (Globalization has brought it on us.)
Maybe points 2-5 are meant in the first place with "manufacturing", but in the end this is only a (small) part of the added value.
And isn't that what the question is about? Where does the money go? In which case VAT and tariffs play a big part too.
Or is it about whose hands are touching the final product?
 
Not really. Frankly the made in Asia gear is often better when it is contracted to the proper manufacturer. As with anything there are different levels of quality manufacturing available so if an audio company wants to have top quality production in China, absolutely it is available.

While I absolutely would always prefer to support production as local as possible, I am by necessity price sensitive so if there is a significant savings to be had, I will just be honest and admit that I would probably opt for the less expensive route.

A caveat though, if the price difference was not significant, I would stretch myself to support local production. All else being equal.
 
Depends on what story you wish to tell with your brand. Your current products are not inexpensive, and I think buyers may have certain expectations when they are paying 12K-22K USD for a speaker system.

"Made in PRC" may work splendidly if you wish to offer lower-cost products, where buyers are less concerned about brand image, and more concerned about good value. With a few exceptions, PRC brands aren't so strong on emotional appeal, so they're sold more like commodities, where features and price are top priorities.

OTOH, if you are McIntosh Laboratory, "Made in Binghamton, New York, USA" is an important part of the appeal, and while it's ownership has changed more than once, overseas owners have never dared to offshore the bulk of the manufacturing.

Yes, and this is an interesting discussion to follow and potentially gain some insights into future product decisions. :) For now I am trying to keep it European based. It comes with benefits as well with regards to easier collaboration and partnership with vendors closer to home. But it is a complicated picture already.

For a Manta system with subs for instance:

Design, research & development, assembly and QA is done in Norway.
Loudspeaker drivers are made in Italy
Subwoofer drivers are made in Denmark
Amplifiers are made by Hypex, which is from Holland, but they are actually manufactured in a Hypex owned plant in Malaysia.
The custom stands are made in Norway
Cabinets for both speakers and subs are made in Estland
 
Given a choice, I would rather not purchase anything from China. The problem is it's pretty hard to know all the time. Parts come from everywhere and China is a HUGE player. China accounts for approximately 31.63% of total global manufacturing output. Yes, nearly one-third of all manufactured goods worldwide are produced in China. That's crazy!

The scale of China's manufacturing sector far exceeds other major economies:
  • United States: 15.87% of global manufacturing
  • Japan: 6.52%
  • Germany: 4.78%
  • India: 2.87%
  • South Korea: 2.71%
China overtook the United States as the world's largest manufacturer in 2010. The rise has been rapid: China's manufacturing output is now about double that of the United States, which ranks second globally. It exceeds the combined output of the next three largest manufacturers (US, Japan, and Germany). In 1995, China accounted for just 3% of global manufacturing exports. As you can see China intentionally increased global manufacturing exports dramatically each year to reach over 31% of the world's manufacturing exports within a 29 year period. That's not an accident.

You might prefer to buy local but when you buy from a big brand it's likely that won't happen. Best you can do is make an effort to read where the product is manufactured and follow your preferences if possible.
 
I did not vote because to me it is not at all clear what the question and the answers mean.
I guess there is a legal definition whether a product is i.e. "Made in Netherlands" or "Made in China". But what exactly dominates that decision, I do not know. [And then there is "Designed in USA and assembled in China" ;)]

What is the "manufacture"? Which of the following is part of it?
  1. Extracting and cultivating raw materials like copper and wood
  2. Building drivers or parts
  3. Carpenting the cabinets
  4. Building the crossover (passive or the active module)
  5. Screwing the parts together
  6. Research and development
  7. Marketing and brand building
  8. Distribution and sales channel
  9. After sales service
  10. Legal domicile of the company
  11. ...
Each of these points could happen in a different country. (Globalization has brought it on us.)
Maybe points 2-5 are meant in the first place with "manufacturing", but in the end this is only a (small) part of the added value.
And isn't that what the question is about? Where does the money go? In which case VAT and tariffs play a big part too.
Or is it about whose hands are touching the final product?

Good question. I just wrote an example of how it looks for us in the post above. :)
 
Needs and wants are two different things. It’s hard to pay extra for the same thing, but there is something to be said about locally manufactured products offering something inherently different from a repair/serviceability standpoint when the majority of production is local.

I want local manufacturing AND cost effective products. Knowing that there is a premium to be paid, it will translate into how much is actually made locally versus not.

Everyone is savvy that there is no such thing something made entirely locally. The famed SR-71 Blackbird used Soviet titanium but is arguably a U.S. made product. Along those lines, McIntosh is made in USA even though components are sourced globally. The iPhone is designed in the U.S. but is not U.S. manufactured.

For a loudspeaker, if you merely assembled it from a premade enclosure that was arriving on a container boat from overseas, that doesn’t count for local manufacturing. Independent of geopolitics, it’s a lot of carbon footprint to ship that heavy enclosure across the globe when it can be done locally.

The drivers and crossovers are different. Carbon footprint is less to ship and I can imagine big economies of scales using mass produced drivers instead of artisan level products. Still, if you needed a repair, I trust companies like Magico or Meyer Sound to be able to rebuild cones and spiders, etc.
Globalization has lead to these scenarios in almost all technology products, cars, appliances, TVs etc. and rare to get to 90% home grown. As others have mentioned it is the policies of bad actors that bring ethics and fairness into this discussion which is difficult to discuss without taking sides on global politics.
 
You can throw the carbon footprint into the mix . In the past speakers boxes where to big and bulky to ship all over the globe .
But shipping has gotten too cheap and offshore manufacturing too .

I think in the past even US brands actually built speakers in Denmark and other places for the EU market in the past and Japanese brands had local EU models built in Europe, cheaper to ship drivers and put into local monkey coffins :)

Where are MDF manufactured these days ? How local are particle board manufacturers .
I’ve been to a local board manufacturing plant professionally to repair industrial equipment, so they do exist , their products went mostly into furniture and wardrobe flat pack products . Raw material was probably also local, we have a lot of forest.

Maybe that could be a part of product specs , carbon footprint ?
This migth be more important than country of origin, that components has not been needlessly shipped around the globe .
 
Their products contain a fuktonne of imported components. They make their own transformers, but bring in vacuum tubes from one or more of the few countries where they are still manufactured. They do use quite a bit more domestically made stuff to build their products than the usual "Assembled in USA" operation does, but there is still plenty of "foreign" content there because that's literally unavoidable -- e.g. try to find an American-made discrete semiconductor or coupling capacitor.
That's also true if you attempt to create an entirely made-in-PRC product, and the greater the level of technology, the more difficult it becomes.

Pottery: Easy
PCs: No can do

And for the most part, I think this global interdependence is a good thing, because it kinda forces people to get along.
 
That's also true if you attempt to create an entirely made-in-PRC product, and the greater the level of technology, the more difficult it becomes.

Pottery: Easy
PCs: No can do

And for the most part, I think this global interdependence is a good thing, because it kinda forces people to get along.

Chinese-made PeeCees from big-name brands like HP and Dell have been just dandy quality-wise for going on 20 years. I'm typing this on one that's 15 years old, was bought used 8 years ago, and is entirely adequate for 90+ percent of what I need it to do, the only exceptions being inadequate CPU muscle for 4K video and its too-noisy onboard sound circuit.
 
Then there is "Made in USA"
OTOH, if you are McIntosh Laboratory, "Made in Binghamton, New York, USA" is an important part of the appeal, and while it's ownership has changed more than once, overseas owners have never dared to offshore the bulk of the manufacturing.
Well then there is "Assembled in USA" vs. actually made in the USA... remember the Lexicon BD-30 which was simply an Oppo with a new face plate (billet aluminum to be sure) and a new back plate both presumably actually made in the USA with a complete Chinese component inside?

Oh yeah, and the Lexicon came with an additional $2,900 in mark up.

Lexicon Oppo.png
Lexicon BD-30.jpg
 
I would gladly pay a premium (I do) for European gear and I would also pay a bigger one if I liked something from US (like Rockports for example).
I'm also a sucker for components like Caddock MPxxx resistors,Vishay T220 diodes,you know,the works.

I like the feeling that money spend on quality,genuine stuff eventually returns to me or people around me.After all is a hobby,every exaggeration is justified :cool:
 
In Europe there are several loudspeaker manufacturers, some brands such as Davis, Focal, Supravox or Triangle only use their own in their speakers (but Audax and PHL do not produce any).
So as for them I only do DIY I bought from these two brands. The prices are quite modest and I am very stingy for hifi, I prefer to spend on music. For me only quality counts, + after-sales service because these are quite fragile components already over time, foam suspensions have an unfortunate tendency to disintegrate so I want a solid manufacturer close to my home.
If I lived all year round in the US, I don't know if I would pay the crazy prices for GPA (Great Plains Audio - formerly Altec).
 
My previous speakers were Ascend Acoustics CMT-340SE2 assembled in the USA. I definitely liked the fact that they were assembled in my country but I'm pretty sure all if not most of their components are manufactured overseas. The SEAS tweeters may be manufactured in Norway but I think the rest of the components are from Asiatic countries. Their higher end Sierra series speakers may have more parts manufactured in Europe but even then the bamboo cabinets and crossover components are probably from Asia. I would have liked to step up to one of their Sierra series models like the LX or ideally the towers but they were out of my budget and not available used locally. Instead I found a good deal on a used pair of Wharfedale Lintons and am very happy with them. They look and sound great, while I don't like the made in China sticker on the back it really doesn't bother me too much.
 
And for the most part, I think this global interdependence is a good thing, because it kinda forces people to get along.
In theory yes. But you need to be careful that in the process you don’t give away your IP to people in a country that have a fundamentally different view of what IP even is. Or become so dependent on your partner that they can have their way with you.

I rewrote that multiple times and hopefully achieved sufficient lack of politics.
 
When it comes to loudspeakers, my concern relating to country of origin is the board material itself. European board has pretty much the highest standards for emissions (formaldehyde etc), so you can be really confident you aren't putting ported (open to the air with unsealed interiors) boxes in your house that can make you sick or worse, can be carcinogenic causing nasopharyngeal cancers or leukemia.

US board is generally pretty good, but Chinese and Asian board I wouldn't put anywhere in my house. That means speakers, entertainment units, desks, bookcases, any board used for kitchen cabinets etc. The big exception being IKEA- they source probably the lowest emission boards for everything they make/have made and ensure it complies- everywhere in the world.

This chit is bad. From my many years in the furniture and RTA (flatpack) furniture business, I learnt a lot, to the point we could tell the origin of board just by the smell of it.
The upshot being I wouldn't put a single Asian sourced brand of loudspeaker in my house in 2024. I would buy European or American.

As for the components- I don't care, as long as they perform well and are reliable and of course, spare parts are freely available and inexpensive.
 
don't care where its manufactured. But I don't like the limitations of the three picks in the poll.
 
Ultimately, no, I don’t care where my speakers come from. As long as they are what I’m looking for in terms of sound and aesthetics.

buying from somewhere closer can reduce the hassle of shipping though of course.
I’m used to buying speakers secondhand, so lots of shipping involved, but it was a nice bonus to buy my last pair of speakers from a local dealer which just meant driving to pick them up. It also made it easy to drop them off at the dealers to be upgraded.
 
but it was a nice bonus to buy my last pair of speakers from a local dealer which just meant driving to pick them up. It also made it easy to drop them off at the dealers to be upgraded.

Are you buying speakers from Danny at GR Research again? Tube connectors and replace those cheesy crossovers?
;)
 
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